I'm 59, I saw enough in the 1970s to say THANK GOD FOR THE EPA.
I well remember stopping in Birmingham on Our way to visit family in Tuscaloosa in 1968. We sat on benches outside a burger joint and after a few minutes we all had coal dust in our hair and on our clothes, that and many other examples have stayed with me.
If the coal industry and other polluters had their way Nixon never would have signed the Clean Waters And Clean Air Acts in 71/72. Industries fought every auto safety measure, every Café Standard, every move to clean rivers, lakes, toxic waste dumps, make food safer, etc,etc.
Those coal burners are being replaced by cleaner natural gas. That shifts profits from the coal industry to the natural gas industry, that is what the real pushback is about. You're like most, a pawn.